How To Prevent Dogs From Scratching Wood Flooring?

Dogs have a tendency of scratching wood floorings, especially those made with hardwood, leaving terrible scratches that greatly ruin such floors. While the dogs do not, intentionally, scratch the floorings, oftentimes their claws dig in, especially after a good play session. If you have been find solutions on how to prevent dogs from scratching wood flooring, you are in the right place. The following are tried and tested ways of solving this problem once and for all.

Clean and coat your wooden floorings
By keeping your floorings especially near entrances and on frequently travelled sections, chances of dogs scratching the floorings will be reduced a great deal. Dirt acts like sandpaper. When your dog steps on the dirt, it gouges into the surface of your wooden floor thereby leaving scratches. Naturally, hardwood floors come with a long lasting coating that serves to protect them from scratching, but this coating needs replication periodically. Be sure to consult the manufacturer of your flooring for details on how to reapply the coat to the flooring. By constantly cleaning and frequently coating your wooden flooring, you will be able to keep scratching at bay for long period of time.

Do proper claw grooming
Proper claw grooming must not be overlooked while preserving wooden floors. Dogs have extremely hard and sharp claws that grow at the same rate as human fingernails. Except for dogs which spend time outside, dog’s claws will definitely need trimming and grooming to keep them in good shape and size. Invest in dog grooming products, for example claw clippers in particular specifically made for dog’s nails, as well as files designed to smooth edges of freshly trimmed nails. Alternatively, you can take your dog to a professional groomer who is trained and hence skilled in this activity.

Importance of clipping the claws
Trimming your dog’s nails regularly is necessary to avoid clicking and scratching your wooden flooring while walking. If you choose to do the trimming at home by yourself, be particularly careful lest you cut the nails too short-such an act causes a lot of pain to dogs. Cut tiny pieces in turn so as not to accidentally cut the sensitive section of the nail referred to as quick. Quick contains a blood vessel. Note that quick has a different color in comparison to the entire nail, and hence you should stop clipping immediately the color of the nail changes after clipping. Normally the color changes to pink, cream or gray in reaching the quick. All in all, when clipping is done properly, it significantly prevents scratching of wood flooring.

Area rugs and nail caps
Rugs
Consider putting down runners and area rugs in high traffic sections to guard the wood underneath. Note that the stretch of your wooden floor that your dog traverses frequently day in day out, gradually scratch the wood regardless of whether the nails are short or not. It is, therefore, important to protect such areas of your wooden flooring by placing carpets and rugs. To ensure rugs remain in place, secure them with underlay or tape. Doing so will prevent the do from peeling off the same, thereby exposing the wooden underneath. Training your dog not to roughhouse indoors will further elongate the life of your wooden floorings.

Vinyl nail caps
Another option is to use vinyl nail caps, for instance Soft Paws. These caps perfectly fit over your dog’s clipped claws before cluing in place. Vinyl nail caps last about 30 days at a time and effectively prevent scratching to wooden floors. Note that these booties do not interfere with your dog’s walking. Initially, your dog may high step or even walk sideways, but with time, it will get used to them. You will need to exercise some patience before he can normally wear the booties, but the effort is worth it since doing so will protect your wood flooring in the long run.

Apply Floor Wax
Applying wax has also been proven to protect scratching a lot. A layer wax will provide a buffer between the actual wooden flooring and your dog’s claws. In the event that you dog causes light scratches, reapplying wax will eliminate the same reducing the appearance and prominence of the same. Keeping dogs comes with a responsibility and just like children; they are bound to cause damage and messes. For the satisfaction and good feel you get when keeping one, trying to keep the messes at minimal provide a balance. Our unconditional love for puppies mean a lot compared to the extra care we have to take to keep wooden floors scratch free.

Benefits of applying Wooden Wax
It is important to note that while adoption of this method depends on personal preference and the finishing of the wooden flooring, among many other factors, using top quality wax can make a huge difference. Floor wax have been found to not only protect the finishing of the floor, but also enhance the traction your dog gets while walking, effectively reducing his tendency to claw. Floor wax should not be misconceived to render the floor sticker-floor wax is in fact softer than ordinary finishing materials such as urethane that are used in many modern hardwood floors. It, therefore, provides a much better walking surface than a wax-free surface, besides reducing wooden floor scratching.

Pup-free zones
This is yet another method suitable for persons who are not ready to undertake measures to minimize scratching, or have wooden floors in some areas of their homes only. Keeping the dog elsewhere will provide a perfect alternative to keeping the flooring looking good always. There are two ways of achieving this;
· to train your do to stick to ceramic-tiled or carpeted rooms and hallways
· create baby gates to control where your dog roams
The end result is that you will have your do confined to rooms with floors that cannot be easily scratched and damaged.

Conclusion
With the above ways of preventing dogs from scratching wood flooring, you will not have to worry about scratches and damages to your flooring. Maintaining a clean scratch free wooden floors while at the same time keeping a pup need not be a big challenge with the such expert tips for scratch-proofing your floors.